The answer will always be “NO”…

On the last day of school for the 2024 calendar year, I anxiously waited for my principal to email me the letter of recommendation that I had asked her yo write for me. My application was due that day, and the only reason I was submitting at the deadline was because I had just seen the advertisement a few days earlier. Immediately upon seeing it, I brushed up my resume and tightened up my cover letter as I waited for my principal to get back from a two day out-of-the-school event so that I could submit the entire packet.

Submit.

I submitted the packet and then logged out of the computer for the last time in 2024. Yet during Winter Break, there was one day when I felt led to check my email… and I’m glad I did. Turns out, I had not submitted my paperwork correctly, and I was being offered a second chance to apply.

Submitted. Again.

The rest of the break went well, and I put that application out of my mind, knowing that what was meant for me would always be for me. I was at peace yet, still excited to even be given a chance to apply.

Yesterday, as I sat at my desk, I opened my email and saw the beautiful word, “Congratulations!” As it turns out, I had been selected for the Maryland Teacher Advisory Council, and I would be joining other educators from around the state to enact positive changes in my home state.

CONSIDER THIS: The answer to every unasked question will always be NO. Try something new. Apply for that opportunity. Ask that question (of yourself and others). The worst that could ever happen is that you will hear a NO; the best that could happen is that you get the YES of a lifetime.